Track II monitoring

The National Democratic Alliance government is keeping such a close watch on media coverage of its policies, programmes and decisions that, it is now learnt, information officers are not only required to send routine press clippings on the media coverage of their subject, but they also need to write a short analysis of it. Nor does the monitoring stop there. Insiders say plain-clothes security officials have been occasionally spotted in the corridors of ministries and departments, particularly Shastri Bhawan, which houses the information and broadcasting ministry, to keep tabs on the journalists who visit.